Heat Engines and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

This program covers the important topic of heat engines and the second law of thermodynamics in Physics. We begin by discussing the theory, which involves how useful work can be done by engines which use expansion or hot gases to move a piston. The entire lesson is taught by working example problems beginning with the easier ones and gradually progressing to the harder problems. Emphasis is placed on giving students confidence in their skills by gradual repetition so that the skills learned in this section are committed to long term memory.

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Trace the history of the second law of thermodynamics, considered by many physicists to be the one law of physics most likely to survive unaltered for the next thousand years. The second law says that entropy--the degree of disorder in a closed system--only increases or stays the same.

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